Coherent, provocative, and more cogent than ever.
An overview in graphic format of the facility through which so many immigrants to America passed.
A frame story involving a modern couple born in Mexico (their daughter says, “I was born here, a Mexicanewyorker!”) expands Feggo’s focus to include glances at the entire contentious history of voluntary or forced immigration to the U.S., past and present. In tribute to what he dubs “a modern-day Plymouth Rock,” he mostly traces the development of an uninhabited mound in waters near the Lenape island of Manahatta to the sprawling complex that opened in 1892, shuttered in 1954 after processing some 12 million new arrivals, and eventually became a museum. While the author compresses a huge story into relatively few pages, it’s an effectively told, moving history. Big steamships and the Statue of Liberty put in appearances, but most of the scenes in Howard’s neatly squared-off panels are people-centric. He first depicts Indigenous residents and European settlers in historical dress; later, anxious-looking figures or families make the arduous ocean crossing, step down gangplanks, and submit themselves to inspections. Crowds of headshots illustrate the ethnic diversity of all the new arrivals. For a finale, the modern museum’s restored, expansive main hall serves as a reminder of “where we all came from and the future we are all building…and rebuilding…TOGETHER!”
Coherent, provocative, and more cogent than ever. (afterword, photos) (Graphic history. 10-13)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781250768780
Page Count: 128
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
If Freedman wrote the history textbooks, we would have many more historians. Beginning with an engrossing description of the Boston Tea Party in 1773, he brings the reader the lives of the American colonists and the events leading up to the break with England. The narrative approach to history reads like a good story, yet Freedman tucks in the data that give depth to it. The inclusion of all the people who lived during those times and the roles they played, whether small or large are acknowledged with dignity. The story moves backwards from the Boston Tea Party to the beginning of the European settlement of what they called the New World, and then proceeds chronologically to the signing of the Declaration. “Your Rights and Mine” traces the influence of the document from its inception to the present ending with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The full text of the Declaration and a reproduction of the original are included. A chronology of events and an index are helpful to the young researcher. Another interesting feature is “Visiting the Declaration of Independence.” It contains a short review of what happened to the document in the years after it was written, a useful Web site, and a description of how it is displayed and protected today at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. Illustrations from the period add interest and detail. An excellent addition to the American history collection and an engrossing read. (Nonfiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8234-1448-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2000
Logically pointing out that the American cowboy archetype didn’t spring up from nowhere, Sandler, author of Cowboys (1994) and other volumes in the superficial, if luxuriously illustrated, “Library of Congress Book” series, looks back over 400 years of cattle tending in North America. His coverage ranges from the livestock carried on Columbus’s second voyage to today’s herding-by-helicopter operations. Here, too, the generous array of dramatic early prints, paintings, and photos are more likely to capture readers’ imaginations than the generality-ridden text. But among his vague comments about the characters, values, and culture passed by Mexican vaqueros to later arrivals from the Eastern US, Sadler intersperses nods to the gauchos, llaneros, and other South American “cowmen,” plus the paniolos of Hawaii, and the renowned African-American cowboys. He also decries the role film and popular literature have played in suppressing the vaqueros’ place in the history of the American West. He tackles an uncommon topic, and will broaden the historical perspective of many young cowboy fans, but his glance at modern vaqueros seems to stop at this country’s borders. Young readers will get a far more detailed, vivid picture of vaquero life and work from the cowboy classics in his annotated bibliography. (Notes, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-6019-7
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
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